LIUZHOU, China - Thursday, 1 October, 2015 - After three days of calm winds, Thursday afternoon became a "blowout" after strong northerly winds whistled down the Liu River and forced the UIM F1 H2O World Championship race at the 21st Grand Prix of China to end early after just two qualifying sessions handing World Champion Philippe Chiappe of the hometown CTIC China Team his second pole of the year and will lead the field of 18 drivers for tomorrows Grand Prix.

Just moments into the "Q2" 20 minute session a lot of drama was dished out when young Swedish star Erik Stark of the Emirates Team stuffed his boat on the south side of the two kilometer circuit ending his day in a heart stopping wallop.

After the Osprey rescue team from the United Kingdom helped out the driver taking him off the circuit and removing his heavily damaged BABA boat, the session was restarted.

Just a few laps later local driver Zilwei "Leo" Xiong barrel rolled coming out of the third turn again forcing a second stoppage and ending the Q2 session and qualifying for

the Grand Prix because of the ever growing wind conditions.

The final results thus were Chiappe on pole with a 50.61 second lap and a speed of 142.26 kph for the French star who sits just one point out of the point lead with 35 heading into the second half of the season.

Starting second will be Thani Al Qamzi of Team Abu Dhabi looking for his third career victory in China with a 50.89 time and 141.48 kph.

Third will be Kuwaiti driver Youssef Al-Rubayan of F1 Atlantic Team chasing his second victory of the season while third in the championship.

Sami Selio of Finland and the Mad Croc Baba Racing Team starts fourth chasing his third win in China with Jonas Andersson of Team Sweden fifth and Portugal's Duarte Benavente rounding out the top six with the F1 Atlantic Team.

Two big surprises on the day were that Driver Points leading driver Shaun Torrente of the Victory Team had a minor problem that forced him to be towed in while he eventually got it sorted out he came racing back on the circuit only to have run out of time to continue and will be forced to start in the middle of the pack for tomorrow's Grand Prix.

Three time winner of the race and dominator of the circuit here on the Liu River the last three years missed his opportunity to push for his fourth straight pole by also running out of time and will start down in ninth position one ahead of his old teammate Torrente for Team Abu Dhabi.

The current World Champion Chiappe is looking for his second straight victory and his first ever at his teams home race event tomorrow with the fourth round of the UIM F1 H2O World Championship taking place at 14:00 local, (06:00 UTC) and 02:00 EDT on the East Coast of North America.

The 21st Grand Prix of China can be followed "live" on the tours official website at www.f1h2o.com with live timing along with the worldwide television streaming as well available.

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